The topic could hardly be more explosive: Already about half of the over 60-year-olds suffer from actinic tumors. In Switzerland, we are also European champions in terms of melanoma incidence. Approximately 200 people die of malignant melanoma in Switzerland each year, and new cases affect more than 2000 patients.
This is due to leisure behavior since the 1960s with travel to faraway sunny countries, leisure activities and visits to solariums. Tanning also gives many people the feeling of relaxation and health. Therefore, not enough public relations work can be done, and also for the future not only events like the Melanoma Day and regular education of the population are necessary – for the increasing number of patients, improvements in diagnostics and therapy must be found constantly.
This issue of DERMATOLOGIE PRAXIS is dedicated exclusively to skin tumors and provides a good overview of the latest developments regarding white and black skin cancer.
PD Dr. med. Andreas Trojan from the Onkozentrum Zürich will report on recent developments in targeted personalized melanoma therapy in the presence of metastases. If necessary, the new antibodies can increasingly be used in combination, depending on the mutation analysis of the tumor. He also reports on promising new approaches.
Dr. med. Uwe Hauswirth, dermatologist and dermatosurgeon in Wattwil, shows why early treatment is indicated for actinic keratoses and in situ carcinomas and clarifies the various differential diagnoses and treatment options in everyday practice. Here, it is important to get to know the therapeutics well in terms of their effect and side effect in order to be able to offer the patient an individual treatment here as well.
Dr. med. Severin Läuchli, Senior Physician in Dermatology USZ, takes on surgical diagnostics and excision procedures for various tumors. In this context, the approximation of different biopsy techniques and the choice of surgical procedure for invasive tumors are certainly extraordinarily relevant to practice. The article also includes valuable tips as well as the indication for surgery with three-dimensional pathological preparation (the so-called Mohs surgery). In addition, it is about the choice of the excision line and the distinction between punch and shave biopsy.
Finally, my text is about the recent developments in staging, its importance for meaningful staging examinations, and risk factors in malignant melanoma.
Let’s see our patients not only look healthy, but stay healthy. I wish you an interesting read!
Mark David Anliker, MD
DERMATOLOGIE PRAXIS 2014; 24(3): 4
